To The Future
by PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters
Summary: Naruto has always been the most unpredictable knuckleheaded ninja in the elemental nations and now he has fulfilled his dream of becoming the Hokage. A chance encounter leads him to believe there might be something he could do help his best friend. When have the rules of reality ever stopped him?
1. Karasu-nii

Uzumaki Naruto, the Nanadaime Hokage of Konoha had achieved his dream about a week ago and he was already tired of the paperwork. He wondered how jiji managed to do it for so many years.

It was late in the night or early in the morning, when he was finally finished with the work for the day. He went to insert the ANBU roster file in the Hokage archives, when in his sleep deprived state, he managed to scatter all the files in that particular cabinet.

"Kuso. More work." he cursed. He just wanted to go home and sleep.

He began to collect the files when he came across the one from the year before he joined academy.

Curious, he picked up the file and took it with him to his office.

He had always wanted to know the identity of his mysterious ANBU protector during that year, whom he affectionately had called Karasu-nii. Unlike all his other ANBU guards, he had understood Naruto's loneliness and inexperience in taking care of himself and had chosen to help him directly instead of gaurding from the shadows.

He was the person who had taught Naruto to read.

 _"But the Kanji is so boring, Karasu nii."_

 _"You wish to be Hokage, don't you, Naruto-kun? A Hokage has to be very good at reading and writing, to handle all the paperwork. Now stop whining and get to it."_

However, as much as he had tried, Naruto was unable to uncover his identity, before his gaurd duty was over when Naruto stared the academy. He still had got occasional gifts like kunai and fresh groceries, which he knew were from Karasu-nii, but it wasn't the same. After some time those gifts had stopped too.

Naruto knew that ANBU had a very low survival rate and hoped that his mystery protector had simply gone on a long term mission and didn't deem it necessary to continue the tradition when he came back.

Still, Naruto owed him a lot and wanted to thank him for all he had done for him. That particular year had been been especially bad in regards to the villagers scorn, since he was going to join the academy soon, and even jiji had been very busy to spare any time for Naruto. If it hadn't been for Karasu-nii, he was afraid he would have snapped like Gaara.

He opened the file and quickly tried to find the identity of Karasu masked ANBU.

Eventually he found it and what he saw led to him dropping the file in shock.

Uchiha Itachi

Naruto wanted to bang his head against the wall. How had he not seen this sooner? Karasu-nii had always been small for an ANBU and had long black hair tied in a ponytail. Granted he had never seen Sasuke's older brother proir to the he tried to kidnap him, but later with all the information he had, it should have been obvious.

It certainly explained Itachi's habit of calling him 'Naruto-kun', despite them being practically strangers.

Naruto sat down on his chair with a sigh and thought about what it meant. Itachi was dead so he wouldn't be able to thank him. Maybe he'll visit his grave. He wondered where Sasuke had buried him.

This surely led him to think about Itachi and his sacrifices. He wondered how much he had to kill himself to murder the children of his clan, when seeing a child like Naruto in need had led him to break the ANBU code of no contact.

Perfect shinobi, indeed. Naruto snorted.

No matter how skilled he was at pretending to be one, Uchiha Itachi was never meant to be a shinobi. He didn't have the heart for it. Even Naruto, whom people called the ninja with bleeding heart, had a little bit of ruthlessness that was needed to become a Shinobi.

Itachi on the other hand, abhorred violence. It was evident in his fighting style, which focused on genjutsu, instead of causing actual harm to his opponent.

Naruto realised that the massacre wasn't the first time Uchiha Itachi had to kill his heart to do what was needed. That would have happened years ago, probably when he became a ninja or when he joined ANBU. And nobody saw it. All they saw was the Uchiha prodigy, the genius.

Naruto shook his head. Sometimes he wondered that it probably the Shinobi system was all that was wrong with this world. It was a dangerous line of thinking for a Hokage, so quickly dismissed the thought.

He had promised to bring peace to the world and he had done that, for Jiraiya-sensei, for tou-chan, for Itachi. Now it was his responsibility to keep that peace. Perhaps, in a peaceful era, children wouldn't be forced to smother their hearts for the greater good.

He sighed and went to return the file to its original place and locked the office with fuinjutsu.

Soon enough, he was entering his home, trying not to wake up Hinata or the children. It was wasted effort, though.

"Finished with the paperwork?" came Hinata's voice, as she got up from the couch.

"Hai. You shouldn't have waited Hinata-chan."

She decided not to respond to that, as always. "You look troubled." she commented, instead.

"Did I ever tell you about Karasu-nii?"

"The ANBU who taught you how to read?"

"Hai. It was Itachi-san." he told her.

When she didn't look surprised, he looked at her curiously.

"I suspected it was him. I had seen him once or twice with you, when I was... uh, observing you." she turned red.

Naruto simply smiled at her.

"And I had also seen Itachi-san at some clan gatherings." she continued. "I wasn't sure, though, so I didn't tell you."

Naruto nodded in understanding.

"I just wish I could have told him how much it meant to me."

"I'm sure he already knew." his wife said. "You should get to bed now. You'll have to be in your office in the morning."

Naruto groaned at that. He was sure Kakashi-sensei had purposely left piles of paperwork before passing on the hat. As soon as Naruto was done with it, sensei was going to get pranked. Hard.


	2. Himawari's Time Travelling Adventure

Uchiha Itachi was travelling through Kiri by tree hopping when he heard the sound of a child crying in the middle of the forest. He debated to himself about moving on, then sighed an went towards the direction of the sniffling sound. He knew that this part of forest was a frequent battle ground between purists and rebels. Leaving a child alone in this area would be same as leaving the child dead.

He found the child at the base of a tree. She looked to be about five years of age, had dark indigo hair and two whisker marks on each cheek. He wondered who would be cruel enough to inflict such injury on a child. Making his footsteps audible, he tried to gain her attention. She looked at him and he noticed her eyes. They were the exact same eyes he had seen just days ago, on the face of the Kyuubi jinchiruchi, Uzumaki Naruto.

She quickly wiped her face of tears when she saw him and asked him, looking at his forehead protector, "You're a leaf ninja, right? Do you know where tou-chan is?"

Apparently, she didn't know the meaning of slash on the forehead protector.

"I don't." he answered her honestly. "What are you doing here?"

She sniffed. "We were here on a vacation. Then the bad men kidnapped Mama and Boruto and tou-chan said he was sending me somewhere safe and said that he would come to get me when it's safe and then he disappeared."

"Who's your father?" he asked, before trying to figure out what had happened.

"Uzumaki Naruto." she sniffed. "My name is Uzumaki Himawari."

It seemed Naruto-kun had inherited his father's talent for space time seals. But Itachi didn't know what kind of idiot would consider the Bloody Mist a safe place to send their daughter to.

"I am Uchiha Itachi." he offered her his name in response to hers. It was the polite thing to do and was also a way to fish for information.

"You're related to Sarada?" She asked, her eyes curious, instead of sad as of a moment ago.

"I don't know." he decided to be honest. Although, he very much wished the answer to her question was positive. It would mean Sasuke had a family.

"Why do you have a line across the leaf on your forehead protector?"

He had forgotten how many questions a five year old child asked.

"It means that I don't live in Konoha."

"Like Sasuke oji-san?"

"What?"

He couldn't help but tense up at that. Sasuke was a missing nin?

"Sarada told me that he was never in to Konoha because he was a wandering nin, that protected the village from outside its walls. Are you a wandering nin, too?"

"Something like that." He couldn't express the relief he felt at that. Sasuke was alive, he had a daughter and wasn't a missing nin. Although he couldn't understand why he'd name his daughter 'salad'. He liked tomatoes but this was taking it a bit far.

"Is your family sad too? Because you are always away? Sarada and Sakura oba-san are really sad because of that."

Himawari had a real talent to hit a nerve.

"I don't have a family." he lied, for the first time in this conversation. "Do you know why Sasuke-san is a wandering nin?"

Was it some form of compulsory assignment that the council had given his brother due to the past crimes of his clan?

Himawari hesitated. "I don't know for sure, but... Promise me you won't tell tou-chan." she demanded.

"I promise."

She immidietly relaxed. She had inherited Naruto-kun's naivety.

"Well I listened in when Sakura oba-san and tou-chan were talking last week. Sakura oba-san wanted tou-chan to give oji-san in-village missions because he just became Hokage. But he refused and said that oji-san didn't want to be in Konoha and he wouldn't force him. Then he asked her if she would want to be in a village that was resp...responsible for the death of his clan and his brother. Then they started walking towards the place I was hiding and I crept away. " Himawari told.

'He knew', was all Itachi could think about after hearing her explanation. How did he find out? The council wouldn't have told him, the Sandaime was dead... Madara, he concluded. He should have known that he would go for Sasuke as soon as Itachi was dead.

The thought made Itachi furious enough to want to burn him with Amaterasu.

... He could do that. He could transplant his Amaterasu in Sasuke's eye during their inevitable battle. After Itachi's death Madara and Sasuke would be the last Uchiha, so Amaterasu can be safely activated at the sight of Sharingan. This way Madara wouldn't be able to tell Sasuke the truth.

He would also have to make some back up plans, in case Madara survived.

"Itachi-kun." he was jolted out of his thoughts by the five year old. "Are you all right?" Itachi was surprised to see genuine concern in her eyes.

"Yes." he said, simply. "We should get out of the open and look for shelter for night. It could start raining anytime."

"All right." She said, holding out her arms in his direction.

He looked at her in confusion for a few seconds before realizing that she wanted him to hold her. Itachi tried to think of excuses that would allow him to refuse, but couldn't think of any.

He hesitantly picked her up and it definitely brought back memories. Sasuke was the last child he had held, after all.

It turned out that Himawari really liked tree hopping. All traces of her tear strained face were gone when they reached the cave Itachi had seen a mile back. She was giggling with such genuine happiness that it even brought a smile to Itachi's face.

Itachi didn't set up a fire as he didn't want to spotted by ninjas. He could easily fight himself out a situation, but factoring Himawari in the situation made it a little complicated. He knew it was chilly so he offered her his Akatsuki cloak to keep warm, which she refused.

"I'm an Uzumaki, we have a lot chakra. It keeps us warm." she boasted, while he could clearly see her shivering even with his poor eyesight.

He pointedly raised an eyebrow at her.

"Don't be silly. You're sick. I could hear you breathe funny when you were carrying me. Getting cold would make it worse." she said, seriously.

Itachi was a little surprised at himself for letting his gaurd down so much around this little girl, that she was able to deduce what even Kisame hadn't, despite travelling together for years.

Before he could formulate a response to her, she said, "We could share. I did that with Boruto nii in winter. It was warmer than sleeping alone."

She had a look of determination on her face that resembled Naruto-kun's when he proclaimed that he was going to be Hokage. Knowing what he knew about him now, he decided that it was best not to argue. Besides, it was the best solution.

He just hoped Kisame didn't decide to find him during the night. He would never be able to live it down if he saw her snuggling with a little girl.

He covered both of them with his cloak and still found Himawari to be shivering. He sighed and gently put his arm across her torso and pulled her closer. Soon enough, she was letting out soft snores.

Itachi himself wasn't planning on sleeping but a few hours later three days of exhaustion and sleepless nights caught up to him and he also fell into dreamless sleep.

He was woken up by a hand on his shoulder, which he quickly grabbed and twisted behind the attackers back, his other hand putting a kunai to their throat, sharingan blazing. It was only after he saw blue eyes staring at him in surprise (or fear?), he remembered the events of previous evening.

He quickly let go of her hand and bowed his head. "Himawari-chan, Gomen nessai."

"Nah, it's all right Itachi-kun. This has happened to me with Kakashi oji-chan too."

He frowned at her. "Then you know that you shouldn't wake up a ninja like that."

"Ha ha... I forgot." she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

Itachi sighed. She really was Naruto-kun's daughter. "Just don't do it again." he told her.

"I promise." she nodded.

That was when they were interrupted by a yellow flash and a man with blonde hair, blue eyes and whisker marks, wearing a orange jacket and Hokage robes was standing in the cave with them.

"Tou-chan." Himawari cried, running up to him and hugged him, as he picked her up.

"Hima-chan." he murmured. Then he looked at him and his eyes widened, "I sent her further back than I was planning on. Thank you for taking care of her Itachi-san." he bowed, holding Himawari's with one hand (was it artificial?)

"It wasn't any trouble." Itachi replied. "Were you able to find your wife and son?"

"Yes. They were kidnapped by traditionalists who wanted to bring back the bloody mist. They are taken care of now." he growled. Then his face split into a smile. Itachi wondered if he ever got whiplash from his expression change. "Well, it was nice seeing you again, Itachi-san. We should get going, though."

"Wait." Himawari said. "I want to say goodbye." She jumped down, and ran to gave Itachi a hug, which, much to his surprise, he returned. "Bye Itachi-kun. I'll miss you." she sniffed.

Itachi smiled. It was the second time in two days. "I'll miss you too, Himawari-chan." he was able to say honestly. He would miss her. She was a brief bright spot in his other wise grey life, even she was just with him for less than twelve hours. "Good Bye." he said, putting her on the ground."

Naruto-kun walked over, took her hand and gave Itachi a smile. Surprisingly, there was no pity in his expression. " Good bye, Itachi-san." saying that, he disappeared in another flash of yellow, taking Himawari with him.

Itachi looked at the spot for a few seconds before, moving on to find Kisame.


	3. The Plan

Sakura was pretty content with her life. She was the best healer in the Elemental Nations. She had a wonderful daughter and a loving (if sometimes absent) husband. She had everything she ever wished for.

Atleast that was what she told herself everyday, until her idiotic blonde best friend came to her with a hair brained scheme of time travel.

"... and Himawari said he even shared his cloak with her."

"No. No matter how many sappy stories you share about your Karasu-nii, Naruto, I'm won't be agreeing to this. This is time-travel we're talking about, directly messing with the fabric of universe. Anything goes wrong and BANG-" She snapped her fingers. "- the reality ceases to exist."

Naruto dared to bring in the puppy dog eyes, and damnit, she had a weakness to those. "But Himawari-chan already did it once. Nothing happened."

"All right, one, it was a faulty seal which you don't know if you can replicate. Don't interrupt me." She snapped when Naruto opened his mouth. "Two, Himawari was already a component of the future and she didn't change much in the past. You're talking about bringing someone who was instrumental to the state of the present, to the future. What's going to happen when he isn't there to do whatever he did and everything changes? Are you prepared to lose your children? Because I'm sure as hell not going to bet Sarada's life on this."

Naruto wisely kept quiet as she finished her rant. Then, he sobered up and she knew he was going to use his Hokage voice.

"Sakura-chan, I'm not going to risk anybody's life for this. I've already thought about the possible consequences. I'm not that much of a knucklehead as I was back when we were genin. I'm the Hokage now and responsible for lives of every one of Konoha's citizens." He gulped. "Even the ones from the past. I'm not saying that everything he did was right, but he was forced to choose between bad and worse. Konoha failed him, among many others. But there is possibility to give him a second chance without risking much, and i don't think I'll be a very good Hokage if I don't make most of it."

This was the feared talk-no-jutsu, wasn't it? She should have just ran for the hills after saying no. She was Naruto's teammate, she knew this happened to everyone who gave him a chance a talk. But no, Sakura had to open her big mouth to tell him that he was wrong. Well, now she had to bear the consequences.

"All right. What do you need help for?" She sighed.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by the door of his office being opened.

Shikamaru entered carrying a considerable number of files, presumably (judging by the way his expression fell) for Naruto to go- through and sign.

He walked up to the desk and looked suspiciously at both of them.

"None of the hospital proposals are open. What are you two up to?"

Naruto giggled nervously. "What makes you think we are up to something, Shika? We were just catching up."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that. "Whenever the members of your team 'catch up', it usually means more work for me. Spill."

"Naruto wants to save Itachi by utilising a time traveling side effect of a malfunctioning Hiraishin kunai." Sakura blurted out before Naruto could dig himself into an even deeper hole. She ignored the betrayed look her teammate shot her.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, as expected. What he did next however was quite unexpected. "You are going to do this, no matter how much I try to stop you. It's better if I help right now and prevent the collateral damage rather than try to salvage the situation when it's already gone to hell." He continued.

Sakura glanced incredulously at Naruto. Had the powers of his talk-no-jutsu increased so much that it was now capable of working passively?

"All right. We are going to do it, dattebayo. So the plan is that I'm going to tweak the seal to take us to the moment when Itachi was just about dying, with a fake Itachi like body. Then Sakura will transplant Itachi's eyes to the fake body and leave it there for Obito to take , as we couldn't have won the war without Sasuke having those eyes. Then I'll put the real Itachi in a safe location with a life suspension seal. He'll be dead enough for Edo-tensei to work during the war. After we're back to the present we'll go to the place where we put him, I'll cancel the life suspension seal and Sakura can heal him." Naruto finished with flamboyance.

Shikamaru blinked. "You've actually some thought into it."

"Yeah. I told you, Shika, I can be smart."

"There are some flaws,of course." Shikamaru continued as if Naruto hadn't interrupted him. "Edo-tensei requires the DNA of the person to be resurrected. How would Kabuto get Itachi's DNA if he replaced by a fake body?"

Naruto scratched his head and looked towards Sakura. "Uh.. I didn't think about that. Sakura-chan, can you make a fake body with Itachi's DNA?"

Well, at least she'll score some brownie points with her husband if she agreed to this.

"I'll see what I can do."

How had this become her life?


	4. Waking Up

Itachi woke up hooked to IV lines, in a hospital room with continuous beeping coinciding with his heart beat. This was the second time he woke up after his death when he wasn't supposed to wake up at all. His body didn't feel like Edo-tensei. He still could feel the aches he was familiar with and had lived with most of his life, albeit a bit muted, most probably due to drugs. Enemies wouldn't bother giving him pain killer, so whoever had revived him was atleast a tentative ally. He didn't have many of those.

He was saved the trouble of going through a list of all possible candidates who were responsible for his revival, by the entry of a pink haired women into the hospital room. She looked like Sasuke's teammate, except she looked to be in her 30s not teens.

It was at the same moment that Itachi noticed the Uchiha crest on her clothes and it's possible implications, that she became aware of his consciousness.

"Oh, Itachi-san." She exclaimed. "You're awake. How do you feel?"

"Like someone brought me back from the dead, again. This time, more than a decade after my death, rather than a few months." He answered, drily.

"Ah, don't worry. I'll up the analgesics. You'll feel better." She replied, with a sharp smile, entirely at ease with a mass murderer and traitor to her village.

He curbed the urge to tell her to stop the analgesics. "May I ask why I've been revived again, Haruno-san?"

"It's Uchiha, now. And I'll leave the explanation to the Hokage." She answered, as she injected a vial of drug into his IV. "Feel better, Uchiha-san." She said, as she left.

Itachi waited for almost an hour when the door opened again, to reveal an adult Naruto Uzumaki wearing a Hokage robe. He looked the same age as when he had come to retrieve his daughter from the Bloody Mist. Itachi felt that his current state of being alive was somehow due to that particular incident.

"Itachi-san. You're awake." He exclaimed, happily.

"So I've been told, Hokage-sama. May I ask why am I awake?"

"Ah, well. You see.." He rubbed the back of his head. "Do you remember the time when you took care of Himawari?"

"Yes."

"Well, after that incident I managed to get the hang of time travel and after taking care of all paradox potentials, we, that is me, Sakura and Shikamaru were able to bring you to this time, alive." He beamed so brightly that Itachi had to squint, even with his diminished eyesight.

Following that he began to explain that they had managed to make a genetic clone of him for Edo-tensei and Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. Itachi interupted him in midst of recounting how they evaded Zetsu and Tobi.

"Did it ever occur to you that I didn't want to wake up again?" Naruto's smiling face fell so fast, that Itachi almost regretted saying that. Almost.

However, the Hokage quickly regained his determination. "And it ever occur to you that you had no right to involve Sasuke in your suicide if you wanted to kill yourself?" he asked, his voice carrying enough authority that Itachi resisted the urge to straighten up. "I don't blame you for the massacre, you had no control over it, despite being the one to do it. I don't even blame you for torturing Sasuke, twice, becuase you were trying to protect Sasuke in your own twisted way. But using Sasuke to die, that isn't something I'm willing to forgive easily. Do you even know what it did to him? He had been broken countless times before, most of them by your hand, and he picked himself up. But after realising that he had killed you when you were not the crazy psychotic man you pretended to be, but someone who loved him and was trying to keep him safe, it broke him into a million pieces. You think one conversation in your Edo-tensei form solved everything. Well guess what? It didn't. He keeps wandering the elemental nations trying to find any traces of Kaguya and Zetsu and hasn't been in home in years. He can barely stay in Konoha. He hasn't even met his daughter. He has nightmare about killing you." He paused before continuing in a softer voice. "I did consider if you wished to wake up or not. I thought that most likely the answer would be no, but we would have a chance to change it. Life is full of possibilities unlike death. I thought you might want to see the peace you wished for, or meet your niece. I'm sorry if you feel that I took away your choice in the matter, but death isn't something anyone should be allowed to choose. And I am not particularly considerate when I think that my friends are making the wrong choice. I did chase after Sasuke for 3 years when he chose to go to Orochimaru."

It seemed Naruto had more to say but they were interupted by Itachi's sister in law. "I think that's enough for today. Itachi-san is still recovering Naruto." The pink haired medic admonished.

The blonde Hokage left the room but his words lingered. He had given Itachi a lot to think about.


	5. Time Loop

Uchiha Sasuke was well aware of the fact that his best friend was crazy. Once he got an idea in his head, he would dive right into it without thinking of any consequences. Any criticism bounced right off his thick head. That was the reason he was not currently in the Hokage office yelling his head off but in his home staring with judgement clear in his eyes, at his wife and Nara Shikamaru, the two culprits who were as much responsible as Naruto for this insanity.

"I understand that Sakura suffers from bouts of madness, but I expected better from you Nara." He stated.

("Hey." Sakura protested.)

"I would have agreed with you if I wasn't aware of the fact that this time heist was actually supposed to happen." Shikamaru answered.

"What do you mean?"

"A weeks before Pein's attack on Konoha, I mysteriouslyreceived the seal matrices to seal Edo tensei in my mail. It was around the time you had your fight with Itachi. At that time nobody in Konoha, let alone a seal master was even aware about Kabuto's modified Edo tensei or its importance in the upcoming war. Did you never wonder how our seal masters were able to able to perform battlefield sealing of Edo tensei, when it takes months to develop such an array?" The Nara questioned. "Anyway I decided not to look horse in the mouth until a year ago when I was presented with a project from a chunnin in R and D, trying to recreate that array used in Fourth Shinobi War. Imagine my surprise when I realised that it was the exact same matrix I had recieved 14 years ago. I mailed it to my younger counterpart when we were in the past."

"Wait, are you implying that Naruto's crazy hair brained scheme to rescue my brother was part of some necessary time loop?" Sasuke couldn't help but be sceptical.

"I think it makes sense." Sakura interjected hesitantly.

"How?"

"Your eyesight is perfect." She answered.

Sasuke looked at her blankly. "You'd have to give me more than that."

"I have examined Itachi-san's eyes. His retina had more haemorrhages than a person with grade four retinopathy. There no possibile way that you will be able to see well after getting those eyes transplanted into you. I guessing that you always had those eyes of the clone I created from Hashirama cells and Itachi-san's DNA."

Sasuke's head was spinning. His brother had never died. That couldn't be possible, could it?

"What about his Edo tensei form? Are you saying that was fake too?" He asked.

It was Shikamaru who answered this time. "I've read a lot about Edo tensei lately. There's nothing in the literature stating that the person has to be dead for the jutsu to work. It is basically a zombie clone who is controlled by the caster. The control is absolute for a dead person because they have no presence in the living world to fight against the command. Itachi was the only one able to gain control because he was alive, albeit in stasis."

"Did Naruto know about it?" He doubted it as Sakura was as surprised at Shikamaru's revelation as Sasuke was.

"He doesn't yet. I plan to tell him soon." Shikamaru replied. "There's something I've found in the archives which might require another trip to the past."

"Oh God. Why?" Sakura groaned.

"It won't be as daunting as our last trip, but I found a note from myself in the investigation reports of death of Uchiha Shisui, highlighting the fact the fact that no body was found."

"He threw himself into the Naka river. Ofcourse the body wasn't found. It washed away." Sasuke cut in.

Nara gave an exacerbated look at that. "They searched upto the dam near the capital. A missing-in-action Uchiha was taken very seriously at that time, especially after the Kyuubi attack. Maybe the body wasn't found was because it wasn't there at all."

Sasuke was getting a headache.

Thankfully, Sakura stopped the Nara from making it more severe."I think we should end the discussion here. Sarada should be home soon and this isn't something for her to hear. Furthermore, Sasuke would have to do some begging and groveling to get her to forgive him and I'm sure he wouldn't want an audience for that." She said, sending him a wink.

Sasuke resisted the urge to groan out loud at that reminder, while the Nara said his farewells. Fortunately, he had the forethought of getting a lot of gifts for Sarada. Though, he had a feeling it wasn't going to be enough. Sarada was an Uchiha and from Sakura had told him, she had inherited the tendency to hold grudges.


	6. A Quest For Truth

Sarada was on a mission. She was going to find out whatever it was the adults were hiding.

It had been a few days since Mama and Uncle Naruto had started acting strangely. It started a few days after the Uzumaki's had returned from their trip to Kirigakure no Sato and Himawari couldn't stop talking about her mysterious savior called Uchiha Itachi, which was ridiculous because Mama had told Sarada that their family was the last of the Uchiha clan. Asking about him didn't lead to any answers but poorly made excuses.

A few weeks later Papa had returned to Konoha and Sarada had finally met her father for the first time in her life. He claimed that they had met before but she didn't remember that. He had also been very shifty about the issue of the mysterious 'Uchiha Itachi'.

So Sarada turned to the only source that had never let her down -books. The only problem was that the history of the Uchiha clan had been classified by the Rokudaime Hokage- Hatake Kakashi. She would need to get a pass from someone above the rank of chunnin to access those records.

That was why she was going to the Hokage's office with homemade onigiri for Uncle Naruto. Sarada admired the Nanadaime Hokage and wanted to be like him someday, but even she could admit that he was a bit gullible. He was a best chance of getting that pass to the classified section.

"Nanadaime-sama." Sarada greeted him, entering the office after Shikamaru-san passed her on, indicating that the Hokage wasn't unavailable.

"Sarada-chan." He replied cheerfully. "How many time have I asked you to not call be that?"

"You're in your office. It's only proper." She chided gently.

"All right, all right. Let's not argue about that. What can I do for you?" He asked smiling brightly.

Sarada blushed. "We'll, first of all I made this onigiri for you to snack on if you get hungry. Secondly, could you give me a pass to the classified section of the library for my school project." She rushed on, handing him the bento.

"Ah, thank you for the onigiri, Sarada-chan. I'm sure they'll be delicious. I was getting a bit hungry." Uncle Naruto patted her on the head. "About that pass though, I'm sure your school project wouldn't require any information from the classified section. It's classified for a reason, ya know. I'm sure Shino will tell you where to look for if you're stuck."

Sarada felt her hopes fall. "Please, Nanadaime-sama. I promise I wouldn't put anything from there into my report. I just need to look into it to understand some things." She pleaded.

"What did you wanted to look for?" He asked.

"The history of the Uchiha clan." Sarada mumbled.

"Ah. I see." The Hokage wore a contemplative expression. "Anything specific?"

"I wanted to know about Uchiha Itachi. Himawari told me you met him on your trip to Kiri."

"I should have told Himawari to keep quiet about that." He sighed, rubbing his hand on his forehead, as if warding off a headache.

Sarada felt rage bubble in her gut. "Why? Why should she have kept quiet about it? Why don't I have the right know about the clan I was born into. First, Mama used to be all cagey about what happened to make us the last of the clan, then Pap comes home after so many years and doesn't even think that I need to know about my clan than everyone in Konoha knows. Hell, in sure most of them know more about it than I do. Why can't you all just tell me things?" She shouted, and then immediately clammed up realising where and at whine she was taking her anger out on.

Naruto-sama wore a neutral expression, as he looked at her, not reacting in the slightest. Sarada was afraid that he was disappointed in her.

A few minutes passed in silence.

"All right. I think I've given Sasuke enough time to tell you. If he doesn't wish to do it, then perhaps someone else should." The Hokage spoke calmly.

"Really? You will tell me?" Sarada asked, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Naruto-sama chuckled. "Not me, Sarada-chan. Come on, we are going to the hospital."

Sarada could only follow.


	7. Conversations

Itachi had been contemplating about the Hokage's words for the last two weeks. He hadn't had much else to do. His body still wasn't strong enough to be upright from more than five minutes, neither had he had any visitors other than the nurses and Sakura-san.

Sakura-san was responsible for his rapid recovery. She was always polite with him, and Itachi didn't intend to breach the wall she had built between them with her professionalism, no matter how much he wished to hear about Sasuke or their child.

While the Hokage appeared to be forgiving, Itachi wasn't hoping for forgiveness from his brother and his family. It was apparent with Sakura's gaurded words and Sasuke standing outside his room for hours without coming in, that while they may want to forgive him, they weren't sure how to do that. Itachi wasn't sure if he even deserved their forgiveness.

He was brought out of his musings by a knock on the door.

"Come in." He called out, wondering who it might be. He wasn't didn't recognise the chakra signature, though it did seem a bit familiar.

The door opened to reveal a little girl of around seven to eight years of age, her face so similar to Sasuke at that age, that it hurt. Her nose looked like Sakura-san's, but the rest of her features had been inherited from Sasuke. She had her grandmother's eyes and forehead, and grandfather's chin.

"Hello, I'm sorry to bother you. I am Uchiha Sarada and Hokage-sama told me to come in here and talk to you, then he disappeared because he had paperwork to do..." She trailed off awkwardly.

After awakening his Mangekyou, followed by the massacre, Itachi had thought that his heart had lost the ability to love someone new, but at moment he could help but feel love and protectiveness surging within him, as they had when he'd met Sasuke the first time.

"My name is Uchiha Itachi." He responded politely, carefully keeping his inner turmoil away from his voice.

"Oh you are?" Sarada asked excitedly. "I mean I thought you might be an Uchiha since you look so much like Papa, but I didn't want to presume. Himawari told me about meeting you, but Mama and Papa won't tell me anything when I ask them."

"Your parents have a good reason for that." He told her.

Sarada puffed up her cheeks in way that was so reminiscent of Sasuke that Itachi felt his lips twitch involuntarily. "I don't care if they have a good reason, I am not a kid anymore. I will be going to the ninja academy now and have the right to knowledge pertaining to my clan."

Itachi was about to answer her, when Sakura-san entered the room, looking surprised to see her daughter sitting there.

"Sarada! What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Hokage-sama brought me here when I told him that you two weren't telling me anything." Her daughter answered defiantly.

"That baka." Sakura-san cursed under her breath. "You will be going home now. Sasuke and I will talk to you in the evening."

"But.."

"Now!"

Sarada looked pleadingly over to Itachi. He shook his head. He could feel the disappointment in her gaze.

"Fine." She huffed, before stomping away.

"She's so much like Sasuke was at this age." Itachi commented.

"Really? What was he like?" Sakura asked curiously. "I hadn't known him before..." She trailed off.

"He was a happy child." He answered. "Always kind and respectful to everyone."

"That's hard to believe." Sakura chuckled. It sounded forced.

"Why did you go along with Naruto-kun's plan, Sakura-san?" It seemed very out of character for what he had seen of the pink haired medic.

"He is the Hokage." She shrugged, avoiding eye contact.

"I see." He didn't point out her obvious lie. "Could you please tell Sasuke that I would like to speak with him?"

"I'll tell him." She nodded before leaving.

Itachi shifted his gaze (still a bit blurry but considerablely better than earlier) to a corner of the hospital room, and kept staring for a long time, when suddenly the air shimmered to reveal a sheepish looking orange clad Hokage.

"No fair, Itachi-san. You know you're not supposed to use your Sharingan." He complained.

"I didn't, Hokage-sama. I could hear you breathing."

"There's no need to be so formal. You called me Naruto-kun when you were taking to Sakura-chan, just like you used to call me back when you used to teach me to read."

Itachi blinked at that. "We have to change our behaviour according to the circumstances. You are no longer a pre-academy child neither am I your ANBU gaurd."

"That was true even when you pretended to try to kidnap me, but you still called me Naruto-kun."

"It was a force of habit."

"It can be force of habit now."

"You are very stubborn."

"I hope you're not making that observation just now. Even the people who have not ever met me know that about me."

"What do you want, Naruto-kun?" Itachi asked, conceding.

The blonde beamed at his victory before getting serious. "I want you to trust me. Like you trusted me back then to bring Sasuke back from his darkness."

"I didn't have a choice, then."

"But you do have a choice now. I want you to trust me when I tell you that you will be happy one day, you will have a purpose and living wouldn't just seem like a chore."

"Naruto-kun..."

"I can sense emotions, Itachi-san. It is one of the abilities I got from Kurama. I know it seems fantastical right now, but I want you to believe me in this. I once promised that I would bring peace to the elemental nations and I was right about that. I want you to trust that I am right about this, too."

Itachi remained silent for a few minutes, his face never betraying his inner turmoil.

"All right. I will trust you." He said at last, and for the first time in a long time, Itachi felt hope.


	8. History Lesson

"... you had no right..."

"... dangerous... mentally unstable..."

Sarada tried to listen through the keyhole as Mama and Papa scolded Uncle Naruto.

"He needed to see her, Sasuke. And you know he's not dangerous, Sakura-chan. I wouldn't even have had to interfere if you two had told her yourself like you said you would." Thankfully, Uncle Naruto had no concept of indoor voice. His side of conversation was clearly heard by Sarada.

"...told her in our own time..."

"...our daughter... sensitive matter..."

"Well, you're right. She is your daughter and that is why she is not going to leave this matter alone. So, just tell her, alright? It'll be like cleaning out an infected wound."

"... would have left it alone if you hadn't..."

"...get out..."

"Fine. I'm going. You're going to thank me later, though." The sound of the door closing was heard.

"Sarada, come here. We know you were listening." Mama called out, just as Sarada was inching back towards her room.

Caught in the act, Sarada sheepishly entered the room. Mama and Papa were both sitting on the couch leaving the armchair in front of them for Sarada.

"Ask your questions. We'll do our best to answer." Papa said as she sat down, surprising her. They were really going to give her answers now?

"Who is Uchiha Itachi?" She immediately asked.

Papa sighed. He must have expected that question. "He is my brother."

Wait. What? "My Uncle?"

"Yes."

"Why have I never heard of him? Why haven't I met him before?" She fired off.

It was Mama who answered this one. "He had been dead for more than ten years. Naruto used fuinjutsu to bring him back alive from the past."

She should be more surprised at the fact that Uncle Naruto could bring people back from the dead by time travel, but she was just not.

"Even if he was dead, why have you never told me about him?"

Both her parents shared a look at that, before Papa answered. "I've had a complicated relationship with Itachi. I wouldn't have been comfortable talking about him. Your mother kept that in mind while telling you of our family."

"What do you mean by 'complicated relationship'? Do you not like him?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.

Mama frowned at that. "Sarada, your father just told you he's not comfortable talking about Itachi."

Sarada moved to apologise when Papa stopped her. "It's fine, Sakura. Maybe Naruto is right and it would be like cleaning out an infected wound."

"Sasuke-kun, Are you sure?" Mama looked concerned.

Papa nodded before turning to Sarada. "Sarada, I will be telling you the history of our clan. I want you to listen carefully and treat it with the respect it deserves."

"Yes, of course."

"The Uchiha claims its lineage back to the Sage of Six Paths through his second son. We have always been one of the most powerful shinobi clans in the Fire Nation. Senju had been our bitter enemies for most of the warring clan period, until Uchiha Madara formed a friendship with Senju Hashirama. They established this village together but Madara was driven mad with grief because of the death of his brother at the hands of Senju Tobirama. He left the village and returned years later to destroy it with the Kyuubi. Madara was defeated by Hashirama but the Leaf never forgot this betrayal.

Years later the Kyuubi attacked Konoha on the day Naruto was born and thousands of people died. The Uchiha comprised of the police force and protected the civilians, therefore suffered less casualties never directly engaging the bijuu itself. Fingers were pointed and the Uchiha were put under suspicion. They were relocated to outskirts of the village where could be easily kept track off.

After living seven years under suspicion of the crime they didn't commit, the Uchiha clan under the leadership of my father, Uchiha Fugaku, planned a coup. Itachi disagreed with this, believing it could lead to the Fourth Shinobi War, and decided to spy on the clan for the village. Eventually, when there was no sign of compromise from either side, he was was ordered to kill off every member of the clan except me and pretend to be a mad mass murderer who did it for his own amusement. That was what he made me believe for years until I killed him eight years later. It was after his death that I got to know his real motivations."

"That's ..." Sarada trailed off, horrified.

Papa sighed. "For a long time, I had believed I had forgiven him for what he did and what he made me do. But now that he is back, I don't think I am completely over it."

Sarada didn't know what to say. She looked at Mama and saw her crying.

"Do you think he might harm me?" She managed to ask, her voice hoarse.

"No." Papa said with conviction. "He won't."

"You don't know that, Sasuke-kun." Papa opened his mouth to protest, but Mama stopped him. "No, listen to me. You don't really know him. After his death, you've made this image of him in your head based on the paltry number of interactions you've had. That is not him. You don't know for sure if he would harm Sarada or not, and until you do I'm not going to risk my daughter in the company of a man who's killed Uchiha children in their beds and has tortured the brother he supposedly loved."

Papa looked like he was ready to disagree but then gave out a heavy sigh. "Fine. Do as your mother says, Sarada."

Sarada could only nod before going up the stairs to her room, wiping tears from her face.


	9. The Uchiha Brothers

"...and then Boruto-niisan said that it was you weren't real and I was making you up, but then Papa came and said that I was telling the truth..." Sasuke stood outside Itachi's room in the hospital corridor, listening to Naruto daughter chattering away, wondering if the dobe knew where she was.

Sasuke took a deep breath, bracing himself to face Itachi.

He entered the room, gaining attention of both the occupants. Himawari greeted him enthusiastically, with a cry of "Sasuke-ojisan!", while Itachi simply stared.

"Himawari, Naruto wants you to come by his office." Sasuke told the little girl, the lie coming naturally to him. Naruto loved his children. Of course, he would want to see her.

"Oh. All right. See you later Itachi-san." She said, hopping away.

"Sasuke." Itachi greeted, getting up.

"Itachi. Are you sure you should be standing up?" He asked, his awkwardness giving away to concern. Despite his brother's attempt to show otherwise, it was obvious that he was still very weak. Sakura had told him that Itachi was undergoing chemotherapy for treatment of his blood cancer, which made him frail and disoriented. That was one of the reasons she didn't want Sarada alone with him. Disoriented ninja were very dangerous.

"I have to for this." He insisted, before dropping down to the dogeza position, prostrating himself in front of Sasuke.

"Sasuke, I have made huge mistakes regarding my treatment of you, many of which I'll never be able to atone for. I lied to you, manipulated you, tortured you, and used you to kill myself, without taking into account your any of your wishes, after I had promised myself to always love and protect you. I regret my actions with my heart and soul, and wish to offer you my apologies, even though I do not deserve your forgiveness."

Sasuke stared at his brother for a few moments, his heart beat echoing loudly in his ears in the silence.

"Get up." He replied, moving forwards to help Itachi when it seemed he was having trouble. He half carried his brother back to his bed, the apology ringing in his ears.

"I accept your apology, but I don't think I can forgive you right now." He replied, when Itachi was comfortably situated in his bed. He didn't want to offer his forgiveness when he didn't mean it. He had already done that after Itachi's death, it hadn't made things easier.

"I understand. I didn't expect you to." Itachi responded.

They looked at each other before Sasuke looked away. "Sakura doesn't want Sarada to be alone with you, fearing you might hurt her."

"She has a valid concern." Itachi replied, his expression neutral.

"What do you mean 'she has a valid concern'? Would you hurt Sarada?"

"No. Of course not."

"You know, you would have said the same if someone had asked this about me when we were younger." Sasuke observed.

"That is why I said that she has a valid concern."

Sasuke sighed. "Himawari seemed quite comfortable with you."

"We've met before. It was three years ago for me. Speaking of which, there were some things than Himawari-chan said about the future that led me to make some decisions I wouldn't have made otherwise."

"What do you mean?"

"She implied that you knew about the coup in the future. I implanted the Amaterasu in your eye to prevent Madara from telling you about it. I also wouldn't have given Naruto-kun Shisui's eye if I didn't know that he was the Nanadaime Hokage. But waking up in the future I realised that nothing had changed despite my efforts, leading me to the conclusion that this was a closed loop instance of time travel. Any that happened due to time travel was always supposed to happen."

"Hn. Nara Shikamaru deduced the same thing. He said that back during the war, he had received the arrays for sealing the Edo-tensei from his future self. Speaking off..." Sasuke trailed off. He didn't know if he should get Itachi's hopes up before they had actually succeeded in rescuing Shisui.

"Yes?" Itachi prompted.

What harm could it do? "Shikamaru believes that Shisui is also subjective to the same kind of time travel. His body was never found and Shikamaru found some notes apparently from him from the future regarding this."

Itachi's face had gone blank.

"Shisui was poisoned by a lethal poison, both his eyes were traumatically remove and he drowned in the Naka river." He slowly intoned.

"According to Sakura, you weren't in a great shape when they found you either. Of course, nothing is certain, but Sakura is going with them this time as well. They will get him out of the river, heal him a bit, put his body in stasis and back in the present she'll heal him back to health with all the yin chakra accumulated over the years, like they did with you." Sasuke rambled.

Itachi exhaled, consciously relaxing himself.

"I see." He responded.

"We're you..." Sasuke began before stopping himself.

"If you have something to ask, please do so, Sasuke."

"Were you and Shisui together?" Sasuke often wondered about that since it was Shisui's death that awakened his brother's Mangekyou Sharingan.

"You do realise that I was twelve when Shisui died, don't you?"

"That really doesn't answer my question. You did a lot of things much earlier than the normal age."

Itachi raised an eyebrow.

They were interupted by a shout of, "Hima, it's time to go. Mom wants you home." The door opened to reveal Naruto's elder child, Boruto, who was almost his father's exact copy.

"Oh, Sasuke-ojisan, hello." He greeted. "Itachi-san, Mom sent a bento for you. Where is Himawari? I'm supposed to bring her home for lunch."

"Thank you, Boruto-kun. Please pass on my thanks to Hinata-san. I'm afraid it's been quite some time since Himawari left to meet Naruto-kun." Itachi answered.

"Oh no. I'll have to go all the way to the Hokage office now." He whined. It was strangely reminiscent of younger Naruto.

"Don't bother. I'm need to see Naruto anyway. I'll bringing her to your home." Sasuke stood up to leave.

"Oh, thanks, oji-san." Boruto replied happily.

"Thank you for coming to see me, Sasuke." Itachi said, bidding him farewell.

Sasuke nodded at him before leaving. They were far from resolving all their issues, bur atleast they were making progress.


End file.
